Formula-4 driver Mrinalini Singh has tested positive for a banned substance from a sample taken during the National Racing Championship at the Kari Motor Speedway here in July last year.
The National Anti Doping Agency (NADA) communicated to her that it had found a beta-blocker — a class of medication used to manage abnormal heart rhythms, but also a prohibited substance on the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) list — in her sample.
“I really do not understand what’s going wrong and what will go wrong from here,” Mrinalini told The Hindu from Bengaluru. “It’s almost a year since they took the test at Coimbatore and now they say I tested positive.” Mrinalini said she had taken an ‘Inderal’ pill after the race, “prescribed as an SOS for me by the doctor” after she had had “a severe headache due to the immense heat”.
FMSCI secretary-general Rajan Syal, who advised Mrinalini to contact the racing body’s medical commission in Delhi, said, “WADA’s list is very exhaustive and many times sportspersons are caught out due to the medicines they take. In her case, she had probably taken the beta-blocker by mistake.”
Mrinalini has responded to NADA with her doctor’s report.
